THE former governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola has berated his successor, Adegboyega Oyetola over the debt profile of Osun State as he held that out of three loans he took; only long-term loan was left without repayment.
This is just as he blamed Oyetola for his failure to properly hand over the government properly to Governor Ademola Adeleke before he left office in November 2022.
Adeleke had declared that the state was owing a debt of N407.32 billion, blaming the administration of Oyetola for incurring the debt. Oyetola denied the allegation as he maintained that Aregbesola’s administration obtained all the loans.
The Osun State House of Assembly on Friday announced its plans to investigate the debt profile by inviting finance agencies to seek clarifications.
Meanwhile, Aregbesola through his media aide, Sola Fasure in a statement on Saturday opined that Oyetola caused the problem for himself because he refused to cooperate with the new governor, Adeleke for proper handing over.
He stressed that the Accountant-General of the state should be in a better position to give the true particulars of the indebtedness of the state adding that the impasse was between Adeleke and Oyetola, and so he should not be in the picture.
He explained that the two major loans he took had been liquidated while the other ones are long-term concessional facilities by the Federal Government with minimal monthly deductions.
Aregbesola said: “I will suggest that you look at all the loans and get to the Accountant-General of the state at Abere. I think the Accountant-General or the Permanent Secretary (Finance) would have better information because it is the Accountant-General that raised a memo based on the query of the governor.”
“The matter is between the Adeleke and Oyetola administrations because the Aregbesola debts have been liquidated. It was not Aregbesola that took the N18 billion loan that was taken after the election. Oyetola took some other loans, including salary support from the Federal Government.
